Cisco Systems acquires Lancope for $453 million

Cisco Systems has entered a deal to acquire Lancope Inc, a private network security company for around $453 million to strengthen its security systems.The deal worth is transacted in cash and equity along with retention bonuses for the Lancope staff who join Cisco.

Based in Alpharetta, USA, the company Lancope is an expert in network behaviour analytics, threat visibility and security intelligence. It has developed a system called StealthWatch that monitors a network hunting for any suspicious traffic patterns that could be a signs of any cyber-attack. The company’s technology not only detects and analyses potential threats on business networks but it also assist in getting a faster response that is very critical when it comes to an intrusion.

With the acquisition, Cisco aims to enhance its security offerings with those of Lancope’s StealthWatch suite, that protects networks with live monitoring and behaviour analytics of network data flows. The company seems to be doubling down on its netsec portfolio because of the huge complementary and cloud-focused acquisitions of OpenDNS, Portcullis and Neohapsis. Though the companies have been commercial partners for some time, coming together as one company will offer both the companies to integrate services more systematically and detect network threats more rapidly. Lancope’s team will join with those of those formerly acquired company’s employees within the halls of Cisco’s Security Business Group.

In a statement, Rob Salvagno, VP of Cisco Corporate Development said, “As enterprises digitize, security challenges rapidly evolve, real-time visibility and understanding of the behavior of every machine or device on the network becomes critical in adapting the ability of enterprises to identify and respond to the next wave of cyber threats.”

Based in California, Cisco is pioneer in routing and switching systems used to handle Internet traffic and move information within corporate data centers. The security business represented around 4.3% of Cisco’s overall revenue in 2014.

The acquisition deal is expected to be closed in the end of January next year.